AIR2 or similar, whats your experiences?

[brucet]

IMHO, first thing to consider is where you will be diving. Obviously, if you are cave diving or wreck diving, I would completely agree that an octo on a long hose is the only choice. But if diving shallow reefs, the Air2, to me, is more than sufficient, and does allow you to lose a hose. And for the spare tire analogy, I will say I have used my spare tire, more than my secondary regulator.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

"...I have seen several people now saying that their purchase of an AIR2 or OCTO-Z has been a let down. Complaining how hard it is to breathe with them, badly fitting mouth piece etc."

Properly adjusted they breathe quite well. Poorly adjusted, they don't. Same with mouthpieces - many divers find that they need a different mouthpiece because "one size does not fit all". The piece of gear itself can be set up to be effective for any given user...that really isn't (or shouldn't be) the issue.

"...That makes me wonder, how often are you in these situations? - how often do you find yourselves in these OOA situations? I thought that maybe it would be a once or twice in a life time experience...?"

There are two sub-divisions that are useful here - you, and another diver. If a diver routinely finds himself or herself in an OOA situation, clearly they have issues that go beyond whether they are using an AIR2 or not. One has little to do with the other. Hopefully, for the majority of divers, going OOA themselves is indeed a once or twice in a lifetime experience. On the other hand, divers who have been exposed to dive groups in resort environments can often recall numerous situations where OTHER divers experienced OOA situations - for a variety of reasons. Some involved gear failures while others involved dumb-assery, but a conclusion could be drawn that in the case of other divers it may be more than a once or twice in a lifetime experience.

"...Anyone who wants to share some experience about AIR2, OCTO-Z etc...."

I used to dive with one, and found them reasonably reliable. As with any regulators, maintenance and periodic rebuilding is important - and a bit more complex if you remove the unit from the BC. I know of one instructor who owes his life to having an AIR2 on his rig when he encountered an unusual situation. On the whole, however, I think there are more efficient and effective alternatives...namely the bungied second stage and 7' hose.

But they are tools in the toolbox. There are likely divers doing biology or ecology research, photography, archaeology, or other tasks for whom they may be perfectly suited. It depends on what sort of diving you're doing...you select the best tool for the job.

Just MHO, YMMV.

Doc

 

[ONESPEED]

More food: In a real emergency I could careless how it's attached, what it looks like, how it breathes or how silly I look breathing from it as long as I could get some air out of it and make it safely to the surface.

Perhaps, but that does nothing to change the fact that a standard reg is an obvious, and superior choice to an alternate airsource/inflator with failure points.

 

[tflaris]

I have dove with multiple generations of the ScubaPro Air 2 and have been happy with it's performance.

It's not a primary reg but when serviced regularly it's performs very well.

I am a OW Instructor so yes I use my all the time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[explorer08]

Perhaps, but that does nothing to change the fact that a standard reg is an obvious, and superior choice to an alternate airsource/inflator with failure points.

So do standard reg's have no failure points?

Than I wonder, why a lot of people prefer to dive with two completly independent regulators or with pony bottles or similar devices, rather than with an octopus.

 

[formula1mb@aol.com]

Perhaps, but that does nothing to change the fact that a standard reg is an obvious, and superior choice to an alternate airsource/inflator with failure points.

Depends on how you look at it. Would I rather have an extra octo and hose that could possibly come out of the bungee and get stuck or tangled somewhere behind my head where I can't find it? In all honesty, can you say that the octo always stays in the bungee and has never come out? In an emergency, I'm more worried about finding my backup reg than how comfortable it is-----hell with all the adrenaline pumping, I could give a damn where my air is coming from or if it's slightly uncomfortable.

I almost see the octo/inflator as a slight variation of the typical long hose main/short hose octo but taken to the next step. One of the goals is always to streamline and simplify as much as possible, get rid of one more dangly. Why not get rid of the 22" hose and bungied octo? One less hose, less drag, more streamlined, cool!

In an emergency, what bc doesn't have a shoulder dump or quick exhaust dump to help with venting? Also, there's a HUGE vent button on the SS1, so if you can't handle that, good luck.

The way I see it, the long main/short octo is a great configuration and if you're happy with it, enjoy! To each his own I say.

Personally, I like the KISS concept and if I can keep it simple, streamline, get rid of one dangly hose, and not have to worry about the octo ever falling out of the bungee, why not? I'm not in the military, someone doesn't have to approve everything I do and if I'm comfortable with something and can make sense of it, why not? Diving is supposed to be fun and I don't always need a higher authority to give their stamp of approval.

I say have fun and to each his own!

 

[ptyx]

I've never been convinced by the regular octopus setup - so it boils down to Air2 (or similar) vs necklaced octopus. Long hose is a bonus and works very well with both.

Air2 is marginally more streamlined by itself, but it requires a longer inflation hose and a hose pull dump if you want to purge comfortably in all positions. It's a tie.

Both require practice. Deploying a long hose with a necklaced octo requires doing things in order. Breathing and dumping on an Air2 while doing something else requires practice. Still a tie.

Necklaced octopus is much more comfortable in use - with a long hose, I don't mind sharing air in the middle of the dive to balance the tanks a bit. I wouldn't do that with an Air2. Advantage to necklaced octopus.

When providing air to someone close to panic, I feel that the necklace is slightly safer for me. There is less risk of the assisted diver pulling on my secondary hose than on the inflation hose. And there is no way to QD the necklace by accident. On the other hand, someone out of my field of vision can grab an Air2 and breathe from it (even if it's not practical on the long term). That won't happen with a necklace. I'll put that as a tie.

Necklaced octopus provides a bit more redundancy in case of failure. I can QD a runaway inflator and keep diving, or loose a second stage without loosing BC. But statistically that's rare enough I'll count it as a tie.

Maintenance wise, a necklaced backup has a huge advantage. It can be swapped with any standard regulator, and a regulator or hose problem won't force me to change my BC. A problem anywhere between the first stage (excluded) and the BC (included) with an Air2 usually means you got to change the whole setup - and spares are harder to find. For me, this is huge on a liveaboard, and pretty big on day boats. Necklace wins.

But both Air2 and necklace seem preferable to regular octos.

 

[Zieg]

Depends on how you look at it. Would I rather have an extra octo and hose that could possibly come out of the bungee and get stuck or tangled somewhere behind my head where I can't find it? In all honesty, can you say that the octo always stays in the bungee and has never come out? In an emergency, I'm more worried about finding my backup reg than how comfortable it is-----hell with all the adrenaline pumping, I could give a damn where my air is coming from or if it's slightly uncomfortable.

I almost see the octo/inflator as a slight variation of the typical long hose main/short hose octo but taken to the next step. One of the goals is always to streamline and simplify as much as possible, get rid of one more dangly. Why not get rid of the 22" hose and bungied octo? One less hose, less drag, more streamlined, cool!

In an emergency, what bc doesn't have a shoulder dump or quick exhaust dump to help with venting? Also, there's a HUGE vent button on the SS1, so if you can't handle that, good luck.

The way I see it, the long main/short octo is a great configuration and if you're happy with it, enjoy! To each his own I say.

Personally, I like the KISS concept and if I can keep it simple, streamline, get rid of one dangly hose, and not have to worry about the octo ever falling out of the bungee, why not? I'm not in the military, someone doesn't have to approve everything I do and if I'm comfortable with something and can make sense of it, why not? Diving is supposed to be fun and I don't always need a higher authority to give their stamp of approval.

I say have fun and to each his own!

Right, to each his own. For that matter, if you really want to go KISS, why now get rid of both types of octo and just buddy breathe?

 

[formula1mb@aol.com]

Right, to each his own. For that matter, if you really want to go KISS, why now get rid of both types of octo and just buddy breathe?

LOL, well you need an inflator hose either way, why not throw in the octo/inflator too.

 

[ptyx]

Right, to each his own. For that matter, if you really want to go KISS, why now get rid of both types of octo and just buddy breathe?

Because then you can't dive with a buddy who won't know how to pull that off?